for his own safety : and it was an unequivocal proof of his crediting the declarations of God concerning them.]
He exerted himself in God's appointed way — [God commanded him to construct a vessel of an immense size, and such an one as had not been seen from the foundation of the world '^ The expense of building it must be exceeding great, so as to swallow up all his fortune. The time it would occupy would be many years ; during all of which the people would be scoffing at him as a deluded visionary, and taking occasion from the very forbearance of God to load him with grosser insults^. But he regarded not any labour, any odium, any sacrifice in the path of duty : he was intent only on exe- cuting the Divine mandate, and on providing for the security of those who should believe his testimony.]
2. Its effects and consequences —
He " condemned the world " —
[During the hundred and twenty years that he was en- gaged in building the ark, he preached to the world with much earnestness and fidelity : and therefore doubtless con- demned them often in his discourses. But he condemned them yet more by his example. His faith condemned their unbelief ; his fear, their security ; his obedience, their dis- obedience. If he had not spoken one word with his lips, his constructing the ark would have been a tacit, but keen, and continual reproof to all around him.]
He *^ saved his family" —
[At the appointed time the flood came. The world, not- withstanding all the warnings given them, were as far as ever from expecting the events It is probable that their contempt of Noah's superstition and folly (as they would call it) had risen to its height, when they saw this immense vessel built, and filled with all different kinds of animals, and provisioned for many months ; and Noah with his little family enclosed in it, before the smallest symptom of any inundation had appeared. But in the midst of their revels the flood came and swept them all away : and Noah only, with his family, were preserved. That his family owed their preservation to him is clear; not only because it was ascribed to the exercise of his faith, but because one at least of them was as deserving of God's wrath as the generality of those who perished.]
He *^ became an heir of righteousness " —
•^ It was above one hundred and sixty yards long, twenty-seven broad, and sixteen high.
^ 2 Pet. iii. 4. ^ Matt. xxiv. 38, 39.
2321.] noah's faith. 887
[Noah knew that the whole of that mysterious dispensa- tion was typical of the salvation which is given us in Christ Jesus s. He saw that a more terrible deluge was about to over- whelm an ungodly world : and that Christ was the ark which God had prepared for us. Into tliat ark he entered by fiiith : and thus, being " found in him'S" and "preserved in him^" he " became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith ;" or, in other words, he was accepted, justified, and saved through the Saviour's merits.]
While we call you to admire the faith of Noah, we would also,
II. Commend it to your imitation —
Our circumstances being wholly different from his, there must be many particulars in his faith which we cannot imitate, but the substantial parts of it are imitable by all.
1. Believe God's testimony respecting the judg- ments which he will bring upon the world —
[There are great and terrible judgments denounced against the ungodly, yea, " against all ungodliness and unrighteous- ness of men ^ " Nor shall gross wickedness only be
the object of God's wrath : a state of vmregeneracy, whether attended with more or less open sin, will certainly involve us in the general doom ^ : nor shall one of all the human race, at least not one to whom the Gospel has been preached, escape, unless he get into the ark prepared for him "'.